Lethal injection faces fight from condemned in Kentucky Case
A Kentucky case that begins today is the latest legal challenge to lethal injection, the nation's most used but increasingly controversial form of execution.Lethal injection is under assault from condemned convicts across the USA who claim an anesthetic administered with poison chemicals can leave a person conscious enough to feel excruciating pain. The debate moves into a Frankfort, Ky., courtroom where lawyers for two convicted murderers will ask judges to strike down or at least suspend such executions as unconstitutional punishment. The plaintiffs — Ralph Baze murdered two police officers with an assault rifle and Thomas Bowling killed two robbery victims — plan to present autopsy evidence allegedly showing that a recently executed Kentucky prisoner was still aware when deadly chemicals stopped his heart. [more]